Repository:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Library.
Dept. of Special Collections

Santa Barbara, CA 93106

Abstract: Test pressings, primarily RCA Victor, of Leopold Stokowski's recordings with the Philadelphia Orchestra and a set of Laura
Bolton's field recordings of Native American music.

Physical location: For current information on the location of these materials,
please consult the library's online catalog.

Language:
English.

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

None.

Publication Rights

Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.

Leopold Stokowski, 1882-1977. American conductor of British birth. Stokowski began recording in 1917 and was a pioneer of
many recording techniques and was a champion of modern music. The first electrical symphonic recordings were made with the
Philadelphia Orchestra under his direction as well as the first experiments in stereo recordings. He also premiered many works
in the concert hall and on recording, had interests in non-western music, orchestrated works by composers such as Bach for
symphony orchestra, championed classical music to the lay audience, particularly with his recordings for Walt Disney's Fantasia.
His recordings remain classics today.

Collection Scope and Content Summary

The collection is divided into four series: Series 1, Disney test pressings; Series II, Laura Boulton recordings; Series III,
Other recordings; Series IV, RCA Victor test pressings.

Leopold Stokowski had a house in Santa Barbara in the 1930s which was later owned by singer Hall Clovis and his partner Charles
Lee. In 1978, the pair donated the test pressings to UCSB as well as approximately 500 other commercial recordings, mostly
Stokowski's RCA Victor recordings. These have been cataloged as part of the UCSB Library's general collections.

Pieces are listed alphabetically by composer and then by title/matrix. Composer's names have been added when known. Title
and date information was transcribed from the disc labels and was not standardized. Some recordings are alternate takes. The
collection includes much of Stokowski's most famous repertoire and his own orchestrations, including test pressings of the
Fantasia soundtrack as well as Bach, Beethoven, Borodin, Chopin, Debussy, Gliere, Mussorgsky, Resphigi, Rimsky-Korsakov, Scriabin,
Saint-Saens, Satie, Shostakovich, Sibelius, J. Strauss, Stravinsky, Schubert, Tchaikovsky and Wagner. The collection also
contains a set of unreleased RCA Victor test pressings of Native American music recorded by Laura Boulton in 1940 and given
to Stokowski by Boulton.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.